Illinois minimum wage law signed

Governor Pritzker February 19, 2019 signed a bill that increases the minimum wage into law. The measure, approved February 14, 2019 by the Illinois General Assembly, will raise the minimum wage in Illinois from $8.25 per hour to $15 per hour by the year 2025.

These actions on the state level happened after the Glenview Village Board voted on February 7 to opt into the Cook County ordinance that had established a schedule to increase the minimum wage annually – $12 per hour on July 1, 2019; increase to $13 on July 1, 2020; and increase based on the annual Consumer Price Index thereafter.

So what does this mean for Glenview residents and businesses?

As was discussed during the February 7 meeting, the Village ordinance included a provision that should any applicable law be passed by the state increasing the minimum wage, Glenview’s ordinance would be automatically repealed. Since that has occurred, the minimum wage will not change in July of this year in Glenview. Instead, the state schedule will apply to Glenview.

Under the state schedule, the statewide minimum wage will rise to $9.25 per hour on January 1, 2020. It will increase again to $10 per hour on July 1, 2020, and then go up $1 per hour each year on January 1 until hitting $15 per hour in 2025.

The state law creates a tax credit to help businesses with 50 or fewer employees offset some of the cost of wage increases. It also preserves the way workers who receive tips count gratuities toward employees’ wages and sets a lower minimum wage for certain workers younger than 18.

Although the state and county wage increase schedules differed, the end result is that both will achieve a minimum wage of $15 per hour by 2025.

The Village Board on February 7 also voted to opt into the Cook County Sick Leave Ordinance. The Sick Leave Ordinance establishes requirements for employers to provide all employees working more than approximately five hours per week a minimum accrual of paid sick leave. That Village ordinance at this time remains on track to take effect July 1, 2019. But, again, should the Illinois General Assembly pass an applicable sick leave law, this Village ordinance would be automatically repealed.